Sensational news at lunchtime. Not the supreme quality of the spread laid on in the food area but the announcement that Jamie Spencer is to retire.

He was a Marmite jockey – certainly not every punter’s cup of tea –but he had a great day when he came from last to first to win theNunthorpe on Kyllachy at this meeting in 2002.

And a bit of this too…

Is she a certainty?

You couldn’t beat 1-4 about Taghrooda this morning, which means that she was the same odds as Prince Charles being the next monarch – which shows the bookmakers reckon she will be hard to beat.

But there are shorter prices out there.

It is 1-5 that Rory McIlroy is BBC sports personality of the year, 1-7

that Scotland votes no in the independence referendum and 1-100 that the existence of alien life is not proved before 2020.

The last bet would seem a pretty sure thing but would mean tying your stake money up for more than five years only to make even less on it than had you put it in the building society – and risk blowing the whole lot should ET turn up.